The future is getting brighter on and off the field for Texans superstar J.J. Watt

Movies are a possibility when career ends, but so is stepping out of the spotlight

Houston Texans first round draft pick J.J. Watt, a defensive end from Wisconsin, poses for a portrait at his locker inside the Texans locker room after he was introduced at a news conference at Reliant Stadium Friday, April 29, 2011, in Houston. Watt was chosen by the Texans as the 11th pick in the first round of the NFL draft. ( Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle ) less

Houston Texans first round draft pick J.J. Watt, a defensive end from Wisconsin, poses for a portrait at his locker inside the Texans locker room after he was introduced at a news conference at Reliant Stadium ... more

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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The Texans called on J.J. Watt when the team made the defensive end from Wisconsin its first-round pick in the 2011 NFL draft.

The Texans called on J.J. Watt when the team made the defensive end from Wisconsin its first-round pick in the 2011 NFL draft.

Photo: Brett Coomer, MBO

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UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, center, accepts the best female athlete award from Watt and Britney Spears during the 2015 ESPYS in Los Angeles.

UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, center, accepts the best female athlete award from Watt and Britney Spears during the 2015 ESPYS in Los Angeles.

Photo: Kevin Winter, Staff

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The lights are bright as J.J. Watt shoots a segment for a Texans promotional campaign.

The lights are bright as J.J. Watt shoots a segment for a Texans promotional campaign.

Photo: Brett Coomer, Staff

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Baseball brought Watt (second from left), his father and his brothers together, as did football when he was able to greet his brother Derek when Wisconsin played LSU last year at NRG Stadium.

Baseball brought Watt (second from left), his father and his brothers together, as did football when he was able to greet his brother Derek when Wisconsin played LSU last year at NRG Stadium.

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J.J. Watt's family was in attendance for the NFL Honors show Jan. 31 at the Phoenix Convention Center, where Watt was named the NFL's defensive player of the year for the second time.

J.J. Watt's family was in attendance for the NFL Honors show Jan. 31 at the Phoenix Convention Center, where Watt was named the NFL's defensive player of the year for the second time.

Photo: Kevin Mazur, Contributor

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Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Photo: Smiley N. Pool

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Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Photo: Karen Warren, Staff

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Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Watt has tried to make time for some offseason fun, which includes throwing a signed ball into the crowd at a Rockets playoff game, appearing at the CMT Music Awards and taking batting practice with the Astros.

Photo: Taylor Hill, Contributor

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Baseball brought Watt (second from left), his father and his brothers together, as did football when he was able to greet his brother Derek when Wisconsin played LSU last year at NRG Stadium.

Baseball brought Watt (second from left), his father and his brothers together, as did football when he was able to greet his brother Derek when Wisconsin played LSU last year at NRG Stadium.

Photo: J. Patric Schneider, Freelance

The future is getting brighter on and off the field for Texans superstar J.J. Watt

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The most difficult decision of J.J. Watt's career may not come until after he retires. // Imagine the offers Watt will receive once he hangs up his shoulder pads and faces a reality that many players dread - life after football. // Watt, the Texans' defensive end who has a chance to join Lawrence Taylor as the only players in league history to be voted NFL Defensive Player of the Year three times, should have his head on a swivel as he considers offers in the sports, business, entertainment and possibly the political arenas. // Based on what Watt has accomplished on and off the field at age 26, just imagine some of the possibilities. // Reality television show: Keeping Up with the Watts. // Or perhaps Watt might become an action movie star. // "The only thing I could really see myself doing in the limelight is the movies, and I'm not even sure about that," Watt said, leaning back in his chair and rolling his eyes at a question about a possible film career. // Watt's interest is understandable.

Like Schwarzenegger, Watt is represented by Creative Artists Agency, the most powerful agency in Hollywood and one of the most influential in the NFL.

Celebrity sightings

The entertainment fever is contagious.

Watt participated in the ESPYS in Los Angeles, presenting an award with Britney Spears and sitting next to Lindsey Vonn. He met his teenage - and adult - crush, Jennifer Aniston. He did commercials with Ronda Rousey and Kathy Ireland.

"I think action and comedy are the two that I'm most interested in," he said, rubbing his chin. "There have been some discussions. We're always looking at things, but it would have to fit in my schedule.

"I would never sacrifice football for a movie."

Prominent director/screenwriter John Lee Hancock, a Texas City native who graduated from Baylor, can see Watt as an actor, primarily after his football career is over.

"First of all, I'm a big J.J. fan," Hancock said. "It's difficult for well-known personalities who are not known first and foremost as actors to appear in dramatic moves. They tend to take the viewer out of the movie for a moment, which is death for dramas."

In other words, Watt is almost larger than life, and he might actually be a distraction in a drama because the audience would think of him as J.J. Watt the football player and not J.J. Watt the serious actor.

"Now, I can see J.J. pop up in an action movie or a comedy, like LeBron (James, in Trainwreck)," said Hancock, who has directed The Rookie, The Blind Side, The Alamo and Saving Mr. Banks. "It's like stunt casting.

"Celebrities, whether sports stars or other non-actors, work best in comedies, TV shows, and, in the case of sports stars, often in action roles. For action movies and comedies, J.J. seems like a natural."

Remaining goals

It's really too early in life for Watt to have a bucket list. Because he's already done so many things and accomplished so much - in the United States and abroad - he struggles when asked to list 10 things he still wants to do.

"I can give you two things I want to do," he said. "I want to win a Super Bowl, and I want to get married and raise a family."

Family is important to Watt. He's extremely close with his mother, father and brothers. A big part of Watt's nationwide popularity comes from the Midwestern values his parents instilled in him while growing up in blue-collar Pewaukee, Wisconsin.

For those who know Watt - those who have watched him since he arrived in Houston in 2011 as the Texans' first-round pick - it's not surprising when he discloses what he's more likely to do than movie roles after his playing career ends.

"I want to go back home and be a high school football coach, a husband and a father," he said. "Really try and live that normal life.

"I'm so fortunate I get to live this crazy lifestyle where I get to see all these unbelievable people and experience all these crazy things. I'm going to enjoy all of that right now and live it to the absolute max because I can.

"When I'm done, I'm going to realize my time is over, and I'm going to go back and experience some of the things I didn't get to experience: enjoying a beer on a Friday night with the guys, taking the kids to the park and just hanging out - all the little things my friends are experiencing right now that I'm not."

Coach Watt: teaching and motivating teenagers and trying to be a positive influence.

Why coach high school football and not college or the NFL?

"In college and the NFL, the time commitment is so strenuous that it hurts family time, and I'm already living that strenuous lifestyle," he said. "High school is where I feel like I can make the biggest impact on kids.

"I feel you can change a kid's life in high school. You can do it at other levels, too, but in high school you have the ability to really show kids they can achieve dreams they never thought possible.

"Part of it comes from my high school coach, Clay Iverson."

Watt's current coach, Bill O'Brien, has no doubt his prized pupil can become a successful high school coach.

"I think he could be a really good high school coach," O'Brien said. "J.J.'s such a hard worker. He's bright and organized. He's a great communicator. Kids look up to him. They listen to him.

"Really, I think he could be successful at just about anything if he wasn't playing football."

A ring's the thing

Thankfully for O'Brien, Watt is playing football, and he's playing better than just about everyone. He was voted by his peers as the best player in the league in an NFL Network offseason survey.

Watt finished second to Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers in voting for the 2014 NFL Most Valuable Player Award after he become the first player in history to register at least 20 sacks two times.

Now Watt has one goal that's eluded him: earning a Super Bowl ring.

"Awards and numbers aren't nearly as important to me now as they were when I was younger," he said. "Now I'm much more focused on what I can do to help my team be the absolute best we can be.

"That's the same mentality I came in with last year, and it's helped me become a better player. I'm out there letting it fly and playing the best football I can play to help give my team a chance to win."

After Watt's award-filled 2014 season, there weren't enough hours in the day to even consider all the offers that poured in.

Watt appears on magazine covers, shoots commercials for products he endorses and arrives for a lot of appearances in private jets.

He still manages to work out every day, stay in close contact with his foundation and make appearances around Houston, primarily for kids.

So far, success and popularity haven't gone to Watt's head. He insists it never will because those closest to him won't let him be affected.

"It's my family and friends, just the way I was raised," he said. "It's easy for me to see that this is going to be all over at some point. It's so hard to believe that I'm already in my fifth year, already halfway to 10.

"You better realize it's going to end, and there's going to be some new guy who's going to be the greatest thing in the world. Who am I to be all cocky and think I'm the greatest?

"I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can because someday I'm going to be sitting on the front porch, coaching high school football and taking my kids to the park."

Daily routine

Watt doesn't have a fear of failure, but he knows there are some who want him to fail. They believe he plays to the cameras, is too good to be true and that there must be something phony about him.

"Every single day I do the same thing," he said. "I work and make time for the fans. I work out twice a day, but now (that) there are ("Hard Knocks") cameras following us, (some) people think it's fake.

"The only opinions that truly matter to me are my family, my friends and my teammates. And the fans who have been here and have been at training camp, they know exactly who I am. They watch me practice, watch me sign autographs.

"As long as those groups know who the real me is, then it doesn't matter to me what other people say because those are the people I care about."

Entering his fifth season, Watt has set a standard so high it appears almost unreachable.

"After my second year (2012), when I had 20 ½ sacks and everything (awards) for the first time, all I heard was there's no way he can he do that again," he said. "I told people there's no way this is going to be my best season in the league.

"They asked, 'How are you going to do it?' Well, I just did (2014). I'm always working to get better. I can't promise I'm going to be better, but I am going to work to get better. Sacks - and stats - are a little about getting lucky. It's about having the right teammates and being in the right situation.

"There's no reason to believe I can't be better."

Sleep a priority

Perhaps the only thing that can slow down Watt is sleep deprivation. Those who watched the third episode of "Hard Knocks" saw how much Watt's values naps.

Getting what he believes is the proper rest is paramount to what he wants to accomplish on the field.

"Sometimes I have a hard time sleeping, just turning my brain off," he said. "Laying my head down at night, there's so many things that happen through the day and there's so many things that I want to accomplish the next day that I just lay there and think about it.

"I've gotten a lot better at it. There was a while where it was really difficult for me to sleep. It was a training tactic. I had no choice but to sleep, because if I don't, my performance falls.

"I read a report about Olympic athletes and the optimal sleep is 10 hours a night. This offseason I really worked on that and tried to get 10 hours of sleep. At least the goal is to get 10.

"People always say greatness never sleeps - that's a bunch of bull, a lie, because you have to have sleep to be great."

With that, Watt yawns, leans forward in his chair, gets up, stretches and heads out the door - presumably for a nap.